Cashew Cream

Cashew cream is the vegan invention for adding creaminess to soups and sauces without dairy! And it takes 5 minutes of hands on time. Here’s how to make it.

Cashew cream is something Alex and I avoided for years. It’s too trendy. And it can’t be that good, we thought. Well we thought wrong, because after tasting it we were sold! It’s not that eating it straight up is so amazing (though it really tastes good!). But there are so many ways that you can use it to make plant based recipes creamy without using dairy. It’s basically non-dairy sour cream, mayo, heavy cream, and yogurt all in one. Keep reading for how to make cashew cream, and all the ways we love to use it.

What is cashew cream?

Cashew cream is a creamy blend of soaked cashews and water. You can use this vegan sauce in all sorts of recipes as a non-dairy substitute for things like sour cream, heavy cream, yogurt, or mayonnaise. For example, it’s what makes the creaminess in our Creamy Vegan Pasta Marinara and our Wild Rice Soup.

For a vegan cream with a little firmer texture and a tangy flavor, try our Vegan Sour Cream. It’s got cashews and a little tofu to provide more body.

What’s in cashew cream?

For this cashew cream recipe, all you’ll need are cashews, water, and kosher salt. You can use raw or roasted cashews, but if possible buy unsalted nuts. If your cashews are salted, use about half the amount of salt called for and adjust the seasoning as needed. Remember: you can always add more salt, but it’s impossible to take back out!

How to make cashew cream

Honestly, the only “hard” part about making cashew cream is remembering to soak the cashews for 1 hour before want to use them! Once they’re soaked (see below for some notes), you blend them together with water or broth and salt to form a thick, creamy sauce. Using vegetable broth does enhance the flavor, so we do like to use it when we have it. It’s especially nice if you can find the broth that comes packaged in 1 cup portions at the store. However, this recipe is just as good with water, so we use that often as well.

What kind of blender to use?

It is very helpful to have a high speed blender for this recipe! It blends up quickly and makes just the right creamy consistency of sauce. You can use a high quality standard blender, but you may want to soak your cashews for longer, even overnight, to get the correct consistency. If you have a low-quality blender, this recipe probably won’t work well. It might be time to invest in a new blender!

Ways to use cashew cream

There are endless ways to use cashew cream or soaked cashews. Here are some of our favorite ways to use cashew cream in recipes:

1. Stir it into pasta: In this Creamy Vegan Pasta Marinara, it’s stirred in to make a creamy tomato sauce similar to a vodka sauce
2. Make a vegan sauce: In our Refried Bean Tacos, cashew cream is used as the basis for the accompanying creamy chipotle sauce. Same concept for these Greek Nachos and Easy Vegan Tacos.
3. Stir it into soups: Our Wild Rice Soup and Creamy Vegan Tomato Soup recipes becomes magically creamy by stirring in soaked cashews and blending.
4. Use it as vegan cheese: The cashew cream base is used for all sorts of vegan cheeses, like our famous Vegan Nacho Cheese.
5. Use it as vegan sour cream: Dollop it onto nachos like our Loaded Tater Tot Nachos. Or throw some into our Vegetarian Chili to make it a vegan chili.
6. Use it as vegan mayo: Our No Mayo Potato Salad uses a version it and it’s pretty darn incredible. Or, use it to sub for the mayo in our Chickpea Salad Sandwich.

However you try it, let us know what you think in the comments below!

This cashew cream recipe is…

Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free, and refined sugar free.

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